


Grandpa

by magos186



Series: The Teddy Chronicles [3]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e12 The Fillorian Candidate, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:06:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18753283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magos186/pseuds/magos186
Summary: Quentin goes to see his father before embarking on the final leg of the quest, but he doesn't go alone.





	Grandpa

**Author's Note:**

> Quick timeline note: Quentin tells the group he "incepted" the knight and that she'll help them, but he doesn't tell them his plan to replace her.

Quentin stood on the front step of his father’s house, nervously wringing his hands together. A hand gently gripped his shoulder, steadying him. He took several deep breaths and rang the doorbell. About a minute later, his father opened the door. “Curly Q,” the man said with a smile. His eyebrows drew together in confusion though when he saw the man standing behind his son. The man was a couple inches taller than his son and broader, more muscular, but their faces were so similar it was shocking. “Q?” He asked confused.

“Um – congratulations, it’s a boy?” Q replied, a nervous smile on his face. The man behind him shook his head and let out a laugh. 

“That’s how you choose to tell him? Seriously?”

“Uh – how about you both come in and explain?” Ted requested. The three made their way to the living room where Ted sat in a chair and the mystery man sat on the couch opposite him. Quentin stood behind the couch, fidgeting. 

“So dad,” Quentin started, “Um – so, something happened. Well, several things happened.”

“Magic’s gone isn’t it?” His father asked. “I’m not like you, I don’t have any powers, but I could feel it when it went away. Like the world had somehow dimmed. I wasn’t surprised when I went to the doctor a few days later and they found the tumor was gone.”

“It’s my fault – that magic's gone. Umber was killed by his brother. Ember was trying to destroy Fillory and everyone who lived there would have died, my friends would have died. So to stop him, to protect them, I killed him. We didn’t know there were consequences to killing a god. The old gods ‘turned off’ magic. The past few months I’ve been on a quest with my friends to restore it. The thing is, time travel is very real. On this quest, my friend Eliot and I were sent to the past. We lived our whole lives. I got married and I got old and I had a son who had kids of his own, but when he got old, he went on a quest too. His age was reduced by half and he came to this time. So dad, meet your grandson,” Quentin explained, pointing to the man on the couch. 

“Hi,” Teddy said with a smile. “I’m Theodore, but my dads call me Teddy.”

~~~~~~~~~

“So, what aren’t you telling us?” Teddy asked as they stood outside his grandfather’s house later that night, waiting on the Uber that would take them to the train station.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Quentin replied, pulling out a cigarette.

“I know you better than almost anyone. I know when you’re hiding something.”

“Ted, drop it, please.”

“No. Something happened when you ‘incepted’ the knight. What did she say?”

Quentin let out a loud sigh, running his fingers through his hair. He put the unlit cigarette back in the pack and turned to face his son. “I’m going to take her place in Blackspire.”

“What?”

“She’s been there for a milennia. She’s tired. She deserves to rest. I’m more than capable of becoming the new jailor.”

“You can't. What about me? What about Papa?”

“Yeah, I don’t think Eliot cares as much as you think he does,” Quentin scoffed.

“But…he loves you,” Teddy said, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“Not in the way that matters,” Quentin muttered, turning his back to his son.

“Dad, you can’t possibly think—”

“That’s enough. Let’s just talk about something else.”

“Dad, come on.”

“Theodore, drop it,” Quentin said, a warning in his tone.

“I don’t understand. You spent a lifetime together. You got married. You two mean everything to each other. He’s the love –”

“He doesn’t _want_ me!” The words exploded out of Quentin. He took several long moments to get himself under control before explaining. “When we got our memories back from the mosaic, I asked him to be with me again, here in this timeline. He said that if he had a choice, it wouldn’t be me.”

Teddy recoiled, as if he'd been slapped. “That – that can’t be right. Maybe you misunderstood him,” he said desperately.

“Oh, no. I understood him perfectly,” Quentin said bitterly. Just then the car pulled up and Teddy watched his father stomp away towards it. He took a deep breath and silently followed him. He knew better than to argue when his father got that tone of voice. He knew it meant he was beginning to spiral into a full on depressive episode. He didn’t say the words, but Teddy could hear the “Who would want a useless fuck-up like me?” anyway. 

 


End file.
